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Chapter 580 - 577: "To Kill a Mockingbird.

Chapter 580: Chapter 577: "To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Second Ring District · Luz Krabin Street · East Street]

The closer one got to the center of the City of Measurement, the more upscale the architectural style seemed.

The city’s outskirts tended to the rusty yellow of the wasteland dominated by forging and mechanic streams. The closer one moved toward the city center, the more it leaned towards the saturated colors of cyber aesthetics illuminated by multicolored lights. The contrast in style from the outskirts to the core was stark, as if worlds from different dimensions had been stitched together.

Luz Krabin Street was a residential area for workers in the mechanics manufacturing industry. After work, they would often buy a few packs of cigarettes, gather together, and gossip—this was one of their few recreational activities.

At this moment, a group of workers who had just finished their shifts and hadn’t yet had the chance to change out of their work clothes were leaning against the wall, smoking.

Their eyes were bleak, their expressions dejected, devoid of any light.

In their dusty, standard-issue work clothes, they were wrapped up like large and small yellow-brown pillars. Apart from their different statures and body shapes, they appeared indistinguishable from one another, like uniform gears living within a large machine, ground down to the shape they ’ought’ to assume.

The smoke from their cigarettes wafted up, like extinguished wind.

After a brief silence, someone spoke softly.

"...Wickliff has issued us an ultimatum," said a gaunt young man with a cheap cigarette hanging from his thin lips, his face covered with soot: "You’d better make a choice soon."

"Field, must it really be this way? Must we hand over our world so easily?" Opposite him, a young man with red hair spoke with sorrow in his voice: "We must refuse Wickliff, we can’t become accomplices helping Ta Wei invade our homeland!"

The red-haired young man’s words were powerful, but they failed to ignite any passion in the others.

The group of workers, just off work, continued smoking against the wall, their bodies slack as if boneless, the majority of them silent, fidgeting with their cigarette packs.

The thin young man named Field, who had spoken first, didn’t respond to the impassioned red-haired youth. Instead, he put on his round-brimmed hat, his grey-brown eyes looking at the others: "What do you all think? Do we choose to join ’The Key’ organization, help Ta Wei, and create a brand new future? Or pretend we’ve heard nothing, go back to our own homes, and tomorrow continue with your numb work as if you are just gears?"

"—Wait, we really can’t help Ta Wei!" Before anyone else could answer, the red-haired young man immediately spoke up loudly: "This is our homeland—those beings from other dimensions will surely harbor malice towards us! If we side with Ta Wei and join the traitor organization ’The Key’, we would betray the trust of the Lord of Acto City who gave us this safe space! Without the City Lord, without the Dawn System, we would still be living in ’Doomsday City’, played with like monkeys in a circus... We can’t be ungrateful!"

His passionate plea, however, still failed to elicit any fervor from the others.

The others exchanged glances—some showed hesitation on their faces, some let out faint sighs, some blinked, turning their faces away.

Most of them were adults between twenty and forty years old who no longer had the naive hot-bloodedness of young lads; they could see the stark reality of today.

...They had already grown weary of such days.

No future, no hope, no opportunity for advancement; their lives were stagnant as still water. They always had to keep their emotions stable, never angry, even excessive joy or sadness was prohibitive—cold, numb, or else being detected with an "Emotional Overload" and locked away in an asylum...

The food supply was decreasing year by year, while the workload was ever increasing.

The population of the city was exploding, yet suitable job positions were dwindling by the day...

Their own bodies grew progressively worse, yet they could only ever remain within this one city, unable to see the world beyond, not even stepping out of their own districts. Like prisoners, they would wake up, work, eat, and sleep, with even their means of entertainment becoming monotonously extreme...

They were weary.

They had grown weary of such days.

Humans are not machines, not cogs; they feel anger, despair, dissatisfaction, and... they rebel.

— Why could some people be designated as "High-Level Personas"?

— Why were they merely ordinary "Type II Personas"?

— Why... were there people who could only be the ostracized "Low-Level Personas"?

Who set these standards? Was the Dawn System truly the epitome of fairness? The person who created the Dawn System, the one who laid down these rules, that Yasa Acto, those assistants from Central City, Qin Shaoli, Treya, Cheng... did they not possess personal desires, did they not scheme for gain?

While they toiled away diligently at their work, what were those higher-ups living in Central City doing? Were they enjoying the welfare brought about by the lifelong hard work of others?

— Was it necessary—

To devote their entire lives, uncompensated, to the Dawn System and that group of people in Central City?

People had forgotten who had transformed the hellish "Doomsday City" into the present-day "City of Measurement."

All they knew was— they needed more. Beyond survival, there was a need for equality and freedom.

Next to them, Field, who was smoking, ashed his cigarette with a grave tone:

"...Gentlemen, we simply don’t want this kind of life to continue, are we wrong?

We’re not wrong... This world should have changed a long time ago.

Our talents, quantified and categorized by machines as neatly as goods being stuffed into job positions. Once deemed "unsuitable," no matter how great our efforts, it’s almost impossible to change our lot—are we to simply passively accept all this?

Our lives, directed in circles by a Dawn System, dictating what we must do for a lifetime. This silent, despairing... resigned life, fixed, traditional, deep-rooted... does it deserve our everything to maintain?

Even if one day we lift our heads to glance at the sky, we find that we don’t control the heavens.

For ourselves, to fight for our own lives, our freedom, our tomorrow—is it wrong? We haven’t done anything wrong, we need to change this stagnant world! This world is sick!"

With a "snap," he threw the cigarette in his hand onto the ground, lifted his foot, and his thick-soled boots crushed the brief starfire of the cigarette end:

"— If we want to change this world controlled by machines, by so-called AI, by the Dawn System, we can only rely on Ta Wei’s power!

Humanity now, like pigs and dogs, shrinks within the "Safe Zone," which only has one-tenth of the area of their original lands, conceding ninety percent of the territory to spatial turbulence and mutated creatures.

"The remaining one-tenth of the survival resources... simply can’t sustain so many people! If we continue like this, do you think your children will live better lives? No! It will only get worse with each generation, because we have already consumed their future!"

"City of Measurement is far from a utopian world; its barbarism is undying. We need more land, more freedom, more... change!"

"For the sake of this world, don’t you even have the resolve to bear the burden of being reviled? We must rely on the power of Ta Wei, destroy that damned Dawn System, and kill its creator, Yasa Acto!!"

With a loud "bang!" Field, who was still calling out loudly, jerked his head to the side as a bullet grazed the brim of his hat.

The others gasped in alarm, retreating hastily, and among them, a red-haired youth had already drawn a handgun, aiming it at Field.

"—You are definitely not Field himself!" The red-haired youth held up the handgun, shouting loudly, "Field would never say such things! He would never betray the Lord of Acto City!"

"No, I am Field," Field raised his hands, straightened his hat brim, unfazed by the barrel of the gun.

His eyes gradually revealed a distinct shade of scarlet: "...Or rather, I am Field who has accepted ’Ta Wei’."

The red-haired youth took a step back, his arms holding the gun trembling.

"Stop resisting, in fact... the Dawn System has also tacitly allowed our actions." The eerie scarlet in Field’s eyes grew brighter: "Otherwise, with its surveillance capabilities, those of us with Dawn Chips would have been arrested already. Or there’s another possibility, the Dawn System must have been infiltrated by ’Ta Wei’ too, unable to deal with us."

Sweat slid across the red-haired youth’s forehead: "...Field, tell me honestly, how many people in City of Measurement have accepted ’Ta Wei’ like you have?"

If not just the spatial turbulence in the Danger Zone, but even humans themselves could be infiltrated so silently and without a trace... then the city today is a huge sieve.

The world was already hanging by a thread.

The red-haired youth had noticed that the workers around him were all showing the same eerie, scarlet glint in their eyes.

—So these people had already fallen.

He himself turned out to be the only Awakener.

"The number of people who have turned to ’Ta Wei’ is many... so many," Field said with a smile: "More than you can imagine."

"So you just betray the Lord of Acto City who saved generations of you?" the red-haired youth challenged.

"That’s a thing of the past. We’re grateful that Dr. Aceto once stepped forward and built City of Measurement, but that’s all." Field spoke indifferently: "Now, our need for survival has been met, and what remains is the need for higher pursuits—spirit and freedom. He cannot satisfy us in this aspect, so he should be overthrown—and as a person in power, to set an example, he deserves to die."

"...Ungrateful, insatiably greedy. Idiocy! You are truly fools!" The red-haired youth seemed so angry that his entire body was shaking.

"Tell me your answer, Anto, you are my friend, that’s why I’m telling you so much. If you choose to join The Key organization, I can help you gain the resources to become stronger. If you don’t join, then for the sake of silence, I can only kill you." Surrounding Field emerged a fiery scarlet glow—this was an out-of-place magic-like power from Ta Wei.

Seeing this, the red-haired youth suddenly steadied his gun, and his figure was no longer shaking with agitation.

"All right, thanks for the information," the red-haired youth, who had been angry, suddenly became extremely calm.

Field was momentarily stunned, and the next moment, a swift golden light suddenly pierced through his forehead.

"You..." Blood gushed from Field’s mouth as a gaping hole that went through to the back of his skull opened on his forehead. He fell to the ground with an incredulous look on his face.

The red-haired youth withdrew the golden light from his fingertip and looked toward the workers who were screaming and fleeing.

Next moment, several streaks of golden light fell from the sky like meteors, piercing precisely through the workers’ skulls and pinning them to the ground. Blood spread out, and bodies fell everywhere.

The red-haired youth retracted his hand.

"It seems that the Dawn System is indeed in trouble, causing such a commotion and yet not sending anyone to arrest me. I won’t have to worry about being watched by it all the time," he said as he drew back his hand. "These traitors who have abandoned the world... No matter how righteous their reasons, their true faces are always so hideous. In Pulaya, those who grovel and fawn over foreign lands are just as disgusting."

On his shoulder, an ephemeral Shadow fell silent for a moment before speaking: "In Qiongdi, there are also those who yearn for the outside world."

The red-haired youth glanced at the Shadow.

"That reminds me of a saying... ’Shoot all the bluebirds you want, but remember, it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Mockingbirds only sing for us. They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they just sing their hearts out for us.’" The red-haired youth smiled lightly: "These people are trying to kill a mockingbird—Yasa Acto."

On his shoulder, the Shadow replied: "The words you said, are they from a famous quote in Su Ming’an’s world?"

"Yes, he recommended quite a few books to me." The red-haired youth... Su Rin brushed off the ash on his clothes and stepped over a pool of fresh blood.

He lifted his head to gaze at the sky and suddenly saw a helicopter flying by, tracing a line above the high-rises of the city.

The helicopter flew erratically, as if it could crash at any moment.

...

With a "bang," from the cabin, Kaskining Feiluo, the Hawk Hound’s second in command, fired a shot at Su Ming’an, like the opening salvo of a declaration of war.

"clang!" From atop his wheelchair, Su Ming’an’s Defense Shield instantly deployed.

Su Ming’an was currently in Shadow State, with a total of 3,140 Mana Points. The wheelchair’s Defense Shield had a value of a formidable 31,400 points in defensive power.

"— Why are you so dissatisfied with me?" Su Ming’an stared into Feiluo’s profound eyes. "Is it that only by turning traitor and joining forces with Ta Wei can you fulfill your so-called vision of ’freedom’?"

...How were these people’s thoughts any different from those of Edward and his ilk? They were nothing but lackeys serving evil for personal gain, yet priding themselves on being just and mighty.

"Let posterity judge right and wrong," said Feiluo indifferently: "As for you, dying here will suffice."

He extended his hand, the cabin flashed with a blood-like red light, and with a "click," Su Ming’an heard a sound as fine as particles colliding.

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